


Desperate Measures

by Magical_Misadventures_in_Miscellany (SilverMillennium_QueenNeptune)



Category: Salvation (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, Assassin!Alycia Vrettou, Assassin!Harris Edwards, Assassination Attempt(s), Assassination Plot(s), Canonical Character Death, Dream Sex, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Multi, Non-Explicit Sex, President Darius Tanz, Protective Harris Edwards, Rough Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-16 02:55:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29943432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverMillennium_QueenNeptune/pseuds/Magical_Misadventures_in_Miscellany
Summary: Tech billionaire Darius Tanz has decided he will stop at nothing to influence the American government to heed warnings about the asteroid approaching Earth. He wasn't expecting hactivist group RE:SYST to hire his former protégé to silence him, or for his connection to Grace Barrows to grow closer when they did. But, "desperate times call for desperate measures".Fortunately for the newly minted President Tanz, he has allies on his side.
Relationships: Grace Barrows/Darius Tanz, Harris Edwards & Darius Tanz, Liam Cole & Alycia Vrettou, Liam Cole & Darius Tanz, Liam Cole/Jillian Hayes, Past Darius Tanz & Alycia Vrettou, Past Darius Tanz & Malcolm Croft, Past Grace Barrows/Harris Edwards, Past Liam Cole & Malcolm Croft, Past Liam Cole/Alycia Vrettou
Kudos: 1
Collections: AO3 Haven Facebook March 2021 Roulette Wheel  Spring and St Patrick's Day Challenge





	Desperate Measures

**Author's Note:**

> My roulette wheel spin landed me on an Assassin AU with a Male/Female pairing, so here we go.

If anyone had asked Darius Tanz, CEO of Tanz Industries, if he’d ever consider a run at the Oval Office someday, he might have laughed in their face. The sheer absurdity of the question would have baffled him. What use or desire did a jet-setting billionaire who had been born an American citizen by sheer chance have for running their nation? Why would he be the one that the people would choose? Why would he be the one to make a difference?

Darius would have called the person crazy—asked them to leave or had someone escort them out of his presence. He had no time for these Patriot Games style conflicts. There was an asteroid approaching Earth that would cause an extinction level event. The world was running out of time. Darius froze as a chilling thought entered his mind. It wasn’t just the world running out of time and options. He knew he had to do something; make it possible for some worthy people to survive. People like Grace and Harris and Liam and Jillian.

_Because I’m running out of time faster than anyone._ That was why he had agreed to President MacKenzie’s offer to be sworn in as her vice. They were both in the same boat and she had needed him; someone she could trust to cut through the bureaucratic bullshit that Darius loathed about American politics. God, how he wished he’d stayed in England now. But then the ask had come directly from the President. He’d be a fool to ignore it. Now here he was, in an office he never wanted, surrounded by yes men and the resources of the US government at his disposal. He longed for his office at Tanz Industries, but that was part of his past now. He couldn’t just resign and leave the President in the lurch.

A sinking feeling swept over him, accompanied by the sense that the walls were closing in. Darius had gotten by on charisma alone before now. Of course, he did have people around to tell him what his best moves were. He also had one hell of a speech writer in Grace Barrows. Seriously, the woman was excellent at what she did. Darius was a speechmaker, certainly, but even he couldn’t come up with them to save his own arse, not even if he tried. Grace was excellent at many things, most of which he could only dream of experiencing when she loved someone else. He had only one thought the day he became the most powerful man in the entire nation.

_Note to self: Remind Harris how bloody lucky he is. And tell MacKenzie she left some giant sized shoes to fill; pray you never have to._ But he would. The sheer shock of how it happened still drew him to his knees.

* * *

Darius was close enough to feel a smatter of President MacKenzie’s blood spurt onto his face. At first thought, he checked to make sure it hadn’t been him who was hit, and then he noticed her. His mind was running a mile a minute. So many things to take care of and questions to answer. He had to find the shooter, get MacKenzie help. There was blood everywhere. It would be the blood that haunted his mind when he replayed the events in his memory. He had seen her survive before. It had not dawned on him that someone might actually decide to move the pieces of the chess board that was American politics so that it’s most valuable position was out of the game.

“No, no. No. Come on. Madam President? Pauline . . . You have to stay with me, Pauline. Stay with me.” Panic flooded Darius’ veins. A part of him knew she was beyond saving, but he had to try. She was, after all, a dear friend who was counting on him.

“Mister President. We need to get you to safety immediately. I’m afraid we’re too late for her.”

“No. I can’t, I’m not leaving . . . What about. . . Pauline.”

“Mister President, our priority now is you.” Darius managed a shaky breath, the title ringing in his ears as the walls began to feel like they were closing in around him.

“I can’t. I can’t.”

“You have to, sir. Come with me. We need to get you to safety. We don’t know if they’re going to try again.”

* * *

He didn’t have the time to process it then; he had just lost a friend. No, that wasn’t accurate. She had been more than a friend. She had trusted him and his blasted plans. He still couldn’t believe that the President of the United States had put enough faith in him to let him run alongside her on a pure technicality. He supposed he could understand why people didn’t trust him. Their world had been thrown into chaos. All they saw was some insane billionaire making empty promises about a threat he had no way to control. They’d want to impeach him, or worse. They might attempt to kill him, too. He’d made powerful enemies when he’d attempted this run, but then, he’d been so desperate to do whatever he could to save the planet and stop Re:SYST from ending everything that he hadn’t noticed the bigger threat was right in front of him all along. By the time he did, there was a chance it would be too late.


End file.
